North Sea Beach Marathon

Summer in Denmark means a lot of good events are happening, and one of them is the highly-anticipated North Sea Beach Marathon. This annual running event takes place around late June or early July at the westcoast of Jutland.

What makes this marathon highly unique is that the entire 42.2 km race is done on sand – which is why those who have participated in it have referred to it as the “world’s hardest fitness test.” Running on sand is pretty challenging as the ground surface is not even and stable unlike concrete pavement or tarmac.

The marathon has three types of courses: first is the compounded sand, second is semi-compounded, and the most challenging is the soft sand in Hvide Sande. In the last part of the course, the sand feels like deep snow and runners will have to contend with maintaining balance while trying to keep the pace. The whole course is designed to take about 7 hours to finish.

For those who cannot do the full marathon but still want to participate, there is also the half-marathon, the 10 km and 5 km fun run as well as the Nordic Walk. This year it will be held on June 24 in the city of Norre Nebel. The course takes runners starting from the Hvide Sande South beach (for the full marathon) and the Vejers North Beach (for the half-marathon). Then the route goes through the scenic coastline of Ringkobing County ending at Vejers Beach in Ribe County.